Art and fashion merge at HiSAM

Nadine Kam photosThis wall-size painting (it's larger than it appears here) by John Young sold for $25,000 over the weekend.

The weekend marked a celebration of the arts as C.S. Wo & Sons hosted the opening of a retrospective of the work of the artist John Young, celebrating the late artist's 60-year career.

He was a prolific artist whose dozens of images of children and horses resonate today, and many of his calligraphic drawings, bearing his unmistakable bold brush strokes, are available for sale at the event, starting at about $3,500.

The exhibition will continue at the 702 S. Beretania St. store from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Mondays to Fridays, and 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays through the end of September.

John Young's daughter, artist Debbie Young greeted well-wishers at C.S. Wo Aug. 17. Many thanks to another artist, Doug Ing, who loaned me his camera for these shots when my camera battery died!

The next day I headed to the Hawaii State Art Museum (HiSAM), where 2Couture's Eric Chandler and Takeo, with Dr. Caroline Hee, presented "A Celebration of Artist Hon Chew Hee," the unveiling of the artist's "King Kamehameha I Uniting the Hawaiian Island Kingdom," as part of the museum's newly open Sculpture Garden.

Hee was Caroline's father and he created the enamel-on-steel mural in 1976, at a time when the State Foundation on Culture and the Arts was looking for permanent works for public spaces, that would withstand the elements.

The colors and exuberance of the late artist proved to be an inspiration for Takeo, for whom a fashion show of five gown ensembles marked his comeback following his hospitalization and open heart surgery last spring, which had left him in a coma.

He now wants to leave his mark as an artist and has set ambitious new goals for himself.

And HiSAM's new Sculpture Garden area proves to be a beautiful new site for fashion shows, and I hope more designers will be able to use it. Right now, the cost of the garden rental in conjunction with another space is $1,000. You can learn more and file a request here: http://hawaii.gov/sfca/rental.html

After the fashion show, guests sat down for dinner from Downtown @ HiSAM, starting with a trio of salads: tomato with deep-fried okra and limu, eggplant with ponzu and toasted rice, and Hakkurei turnip with pickled mustard seeds.

The entree was wild sockeye salmon with vegetable couscous, cucumber yogurt and sumac.

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